3 weeks in and a constant ass whooping with the grades of the problems; most of the strong climbers in the valley prefer routes. Hence the boulders developed by them are stamina fests, this is not my usual short powerful 5-10 move problems and I have been falling off and struggling on 7b’s to 7c’s, I definitely didn’t think I would bag an 8a before we left this beautiful valley. However, on a sunny day in Val di Mello I found something just my style a seven move 8a called Il Vento. By no means did this go easily, the angle of the boulder to the angle of the dipped ground coupled with a very low toe hook and a poor smear to start is a recipe for dabbing.

First day I worked all the moves and linked everything together, I must have climbed the problem from start to finish 3 or 4 times in the space of half an hour. Every time with a foot clipping the pad or scuffing the ground, too gently to notice but with a constant chorus of DAB from friends sat on ‘dab watch’. It took another two sessions, some nifty pad arranging, a spot of gardening, a lot of fingertip bruising and skin loss before I finally managed a clean ascent. 

Escaping the heat we headed back to Bagni for some more early morning sessions. However the 30 degree heat was now warming the forest from 8 onwards, so conditions were not ideal. I set my sites on the 7c, Lady Red Plus, a harder extended finish to the 7b problem Lady Red. This took some work, from 8am till midday for 4 sessions, coming off near the end and panting like I’d just ran a marathon. Nearly 20 moves long it definitely qualifies as a stamina problem, and with time passing by and the possibility of moving on looming closer, I suddenly had a deadline for the send. Success and not a moment too soon, an impromptu climbing session and a lot of kicking and screaming, on the morning of our allocated day for the hike to the glacier, I finally made it over the top. 

We are now tiring of our early sessions in baking heat, and lazing around in the sun for the remainder of the day. We are retreating to higher ground in the hope that full day sessions will be possible once again, first stop Val Daone.